space-education-for-kids

[space-education-for-kids]

SOUNDING ROCKET

Have you ever heard the name Sounding Rocket? As its name indicates ‘Sound’ means Measure. Sounding rockets are one or two-stage solid propellant medium (around two to three meters in height) scaled rockets mainly used to find the upper atmospheric weather conditions like pressure, temperature, and humidity, and this data is primarily used to analyze the changes in atmospheric conditions on the surface of the Earth and for the space research. So it is also known as ‘Research Rocket’. This rocket is specially designed for carrying the instruments to perform scientific experiments and certain measurements during its sub-orbital flight. It can also be named a low altitude rocket as it travels to a shorter altitude compared to other space rockets. It travels up to a height of 15 to 110 km from the surface of the Earth. The payload capacity is in the range of 10 to 100 kg.

A sounding rocket has two parts those are rocket motor at the base and the payload at the top. These rockets work with the solid fuel propellant with the combination of ammonium perchlorate (act as oxidizer) and Hydroxyl-Terminated Poly-Butadiene (act as a binder), and aluminum powder (acts as fuel).

Half a century ago, scientists decided to conduct a mission to explore at Earth’s orbit, they developed small sounding rocket and a satellite and launched to study about the Earth’s lower orbit atmosphere and ionosphere. Eventually, first sun and star observation was possible using a sounding rocket. The launch of the first satellite using a sounding rocket was conducted on 4 October 1957, the Sputnik. The usage of the sounding rocket by researchers flourished and led to continuous usage to date. In the 1960s, sounding rocket helped scientist extend their space industry, it became the mainstream for space research programmers. This reduced the complexity in building satellites to lower Earth orbit for observation.

The sounding rocket travels in a projectile path. Their travel lasts for less than thirty minutes and the data collected are very handy for scientists. These rockets are preferred for doing space research compared to other space rockets because of their low cost and they can be launched simultaneously to get precise atmospheric data. This type of small-scaled rockets made it much easier for research stations to measure atmospheric conditions. Normally, a structural component of a rocket is made up of aluminum and titanium because of their low weight and good tensile strength. Nowadays, the evolution of 3D printed technology has made it even easier to build a sounding rocket, it has helped to reduce the cost of preparing special tools to build rockets. It has even helped in building a rocket in a short period of time. They can be launched in an isolated area for studies purpose which cannot be tracked by any satellites. They can be launched in transient areas for quick access to atmospheric data. Today, the sounding rocket has helped humankind to outreach opportunities to a greater extent, leading to the establishment of new advanced technologies.

For more such interesting blogs and Space Science, Rocket Science, Universe Science lessons for kids and teens, visit https://givemefive.ai

Don’t forget to visit our student projects section at https://givemefive.ai/student_projects/

Dhanush D B

Aerospace Engineer at Givemefive.ai

[space-education-for-kids]

Next stop for humans is Moon

The only thing that makes the dark sky look beautiful amidst the countless stars is the Moon! From gazing it through our windows till setting foot on it, we humans have achieved incredibly bigger in making the dreams coming to reality. On 24th July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on Moon. After that, we have never made regular visits to Moon for the past 40 years, except sending spacecraft for observations. Despite such a long gap created for the next human missions on Moon, some upcoming promising missions like Artemis are aiming not only to land on the moon, but also to build colonies and start living there. It is of course challenging to live on Moon but it isn’t impossible. After we found lunar water near the poles, hopes of dwelling on the Moon became stronger, thanks to the Chandrayan1 mission.

However, apart from fantasy, the question of why do we have to go to the Moon is still arising in young minds. In the current scenario, the way we are treating our Earth, it is uncertain to settle the life on Earth for our future generations. Hence it is of course the Next Stop-Moon needed. On one side living on Moon has many advantages over Earth. Yes! The moon has almost 10 times lesser gravity than that on Earth. This means that there could be a possibility of direct satellite launches from Moon to Space without building expensive rockets. Rockets are mainly needed to escape the stronger gravitational pull of Earth. So, we can forget to build rockets if we are planning to launch from Moon. This has made the life of scientists easy. Not just that, the dark craters on the moon are very much beneficial for astronomers to observe the night sky from Moon. The presence of an atmosphere on Earth disturbs the night sky observations for instance: the stars. When we observe the stars, it appears to be twinkling. The reason behind twinkling is as the light from a star hits through our atmosphere, it bounces and knocks through the different layers, bending the light before we see it. The bending of the light changes because of the moving hot and cold layers of air. Since Moon has no atmosphere, this phenomenon of twinkling will not be witnessed and therefore doesn’t misguides the astronomers for their scientific studies. The last question, what do we do for survival? Well, there could be a farm near the poles where we could get access to water. 8 hours of sunlight per day is sufficient for plants to grow. Therefore, problem solved! But, we have to take care of temperature and radiation because we have no atmosphere on Moon to protect from extreme conditions of these. Moreover, we have to even think of insect’s pollination. All these have to be provided artificially.

Thanks to nature and all the creatures we have on Earth that provide us everything for free but sometimes we fail to recognize their importance. So, before we are too late, let us value each and everything we see around us. Because even an insect plays a vital role for our survival on Moon!

for more such interesting blogs and space science lessons for kids and teens visit https://givemefive.ai

Don’t forget to visit our student projects section at https://givemefive.ai/student_projects/

Ashwini B.R Co-Founder Givemefive.ai, MS in Aerospace Engineering, FHWN, Austria

[space-education-for-kids]

Testing of Propellant of an Sounding Rocket

A Rocket Propellant is the reaction mass (means responsible for lift-off) of a rocket. This reaction mass is ejected at the highest achievable velocity from a rocket engine to produce thrust that is helpful to lift the rocket from the surface of the Earth. There are mainly two types of propellants used in the rocket based on the requirements, they are solid propellants like HTPB, potassium nitrate, etc., and liquid propellants like kerosene (RP-1), liquid oxygen, etc. Normally most rockets use liquid propellants because of their high specific impulse and density.

For more such interesting blogs and space science lessons for kids and teens visit https://givemefive.ai

Don’t forget to visit our student projects section at https://givemefive.ai/student_projects/

The Sounding rockets use solid propellants as their fuel…

[space-education-for-kids]

Space Avenue - Path Made Easier

The topic ‘Space’ creates fantasy not just in kids but also in adults. The sole reason is that it is unexplored, unique, and difficult to access. In some people, this fantasy will turn into a strong passion where they look for various sources to quench their thirst on related topics, news, etc. On the other hand, space may seem a very challenging topic because every difficult thing is quoted as- ‘This is rocket science’. This builds up an aura in the minds of elders especially that learning about space is not a cup of tea, let’s try not to overburden our kids, and so on. For people falling under such categories, SPACE remains a fantasy forever. They don’t even attempt to cross that barrier forever in their life.

In both the categories mentioned before, there is a need for refinement on how to access space education, to get a feeling that space isn’t tough, and also why there is a need to study about it. Before this, there is one more important footstep i.e., one has to know what exactly interests an individual! According to many, the topic SPACE involves various perspectives such as the universe, black holes, rockets, satellites, flights, etc. This misconception has misguided many students in ending up with wrong choices in their career path and still repent on knowing about their insightful of real ‘SPACE’.  Some of them may feel fascinated by airplanes flying in the sky, some others get goosebumps when they see live rocket launching, and others just get lost when they see the dark matter in the universe. Unfortunately, all these are grouped as ‘Space’. But in reality, they are as different as an apple and a peach, despite falling into the fruit category, they may look similar but are completely different. So, first one has to think deeply about what exactly drives their interest: is it the flights, rockets, satellites, or the stars. This is the first step towards diving into any subject for that matter.  Once you have figured it out, the next step is to know why you need to know about space.

Thinking about things that fly will activate the brain in terms of physics, the mathematics behind flight, concepts such as gravity, density, etc. will be well learned, why not all the things on earth are flying, why is it only aircraft able to do it and so on. Similarly, the elevator helps us to go from the first floor to the 8th floor for instance; but how can I use such an elevator to go beyond the earth’s atmosphere? Oh yes, rockets do this job, then why only a rocket can do it, and why not the same aircraft that helped us to fly inside the earth can do it. Likewise, thinking about how are we able to communicate with people residing in corners of the world, how are we able to get a thorough understanding of the earth, mapping, weather forecast, etc. Thanks to the satellites that are orbiting our earth and doing all these jobs for us. Nevertheless, are we the only ones in this universe living? We don’t know yet, but why should we limit our curiosity! Let’s explore, and that is when a man can dream about going to other planets in search of life, resources, etc. A point to be noted is that all these can be done with the things we already know i.e., we use the same spacecraft to travel to Mars, and use the same parachute to land on it and use the same toy car i.e., rovers to explore the Martian surface or in the recent days, the same helicopter we use on earth was used on Mars too-The Ingenuity. Therefore, learning these basics is just like learning the art of stitching clothes. Once you become a master of this skill, you can be the designer to any person irrespective of events. Even in space education, after learning how everything works on Earth it is much easier to adapt your knowledge not just to Mars but even to design any vehicle, technologies for interstellar travels too.  So, coming back to the question of why to study about space is because it is like breaking all the thought barriers which usually limits your rational process and going beyond the level one could even imagine, not just in a dream but bringing all imagination into reality and see things working. This is something the pleasure you can evidence only while exploring oneself about ‘Space’.

The last question, how do we learn about space. Of course, there are wide internet sources which help one to know the facts, watch amazing videos on YouTube, read the encyclopedia and the list goes on. But wait, what if you find a platform where one has been promised to give all these in a combo pack! What more one needs right! That is what the team www.givemefive.ai aims at doing this amazing job. With the experts, the students are helped to discover the path they are interested in, then they are encouraged to go with their passion, they are taught with the basics and train to grasp concepts up to an advanced level not limiting to theory but also many practical applications with interesting activities. The outcome of this course will be a strong, confident individual who knows what interests him/her in Space, they come out with the dream of achieving it and they are sure about what higher studies will lead this way. Unlike the individuals who dream of the universe but end up as an Aeronautical engineer.  

#SpaceEducation #Spacecareer #Aeronautics #Aerospace #Satellites #Space #Universe #Rockets #Physics #Importance of Space

For more such blogs and to learn Space science by me visit https://www.givemefive.ai

Givemefive.ai is an award-winning private live online teacher-led Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Astroscience, Space Science , Universe Science teaching platform for kids and teens (7-18 years) across 15 countries. You can visit Project Page | givemefive to see some of our awesome student projects.

Ashwini B.R Co-Founder Givemefive.ai, MS in Aerospace Engineering, FHWN, Austria

[space-education-for-kids]

Past, Present and Future of Space

Space is a fascinating topic to think, talk, and learn. It is an endless domain where the limitation could be one’s imagination. The dream of the human race to reach space was accomplished for the first time when the Russian satellite Sputnik-1 orbited the Earth on 4th October 1957. Specialties of homo-sapiens are curiosity and are never satisfied. This led to studying all those things that were visible through telescopes. Yes, the next thing that humans explored was our natural satellite, the Moon. Further, it was extended to our neighboring planets Venus and Mars, then outer planets, and continued even to exit the solar system and travel into deep space. All these missions were carried out by machines i.e. spacecraft. Along with this came the next big thing that is sending Humans to Space. The first brave human to reach, survive, and return from space was Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut. All of this seems so magical, humans dreaming of space and ultimately being able to reach it. This shows that nothing is impossible! Once a dream now turned to reality. All that one need is a passion for achieving it. Other achievements include spacewalks, Extra-Vehicular Activity, space stay, and conducting experiments in a vacuum environment.But the words quoted by the American Astronaut Neil Armstrong is just apt and defines the feeling of every human when he laid his first step on the Moon in the year 1969 i.e. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Then many more astronauts proudly walked and rode on the surface of the Moon up to 1972. Though this entire space trip was fascinating, it made a huge hole in many government pockets, thus investing too much into fancy space travel almost stopped.

As time passed, the technological developments evolved. As they say- “Today’s technology is tomorrow obsolete.” It created a new wave for the revamp of space missions whose objective was not fascination or space race anymore, but meant for a wiser cause of connecting the world: thus, this became “a necessity.” The demand for satellites rocketed with increasing use in daily life. It could be met merely by making space launch both economical and efficient. It is also the present trend, where private space agencies like Blue Origin and SpaceX have come up with a pleasing solution i.e. to provide reusable launch vehicles to send satellites and humans to space.In recent years, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX has stolen the spotlight for all the space enthusiasts. This man has no limitations towards his ambitious space missions. Which can be seen right from launching his Tesla car “Roadster” with a dummy astronaut “Starman” during the test launch of Flacon Heavy up to launching two American Astronauts to the ISS (International Space Station) and bringing them back home safely in his Dragon Crew Capsule “Endeavour." SpaceX became the World’s first private space agency to send astronauts to space.Space is not only meant for scientists but also accessible for civilians. Wait for what? Yes, that’s TRUE! Any individual with interest and lots of money can opt for “Space Tourism.” The companies that offer space tourism are: Roscosmos i.e. the Russian Space Agency, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin are both private US space agencies.

Mars ColonizationThe future of the Space industry is even more exciting. It is all about explorations and habitation of humans on the Moon, Mars, Titan, and more. Some of the near future promising projects are The Artemis mission i.e. sending astronauts to live and conduct experiments on the Moon for seven days. This mission will act as a base for future Mars exploration with humans. Another program is SpaceX’s Mars mission, where one hundred people will be sent to Mars and create colonization on the Red planet. The spacecraft for this mission is called “Starship.” Starship will not only fly for Mars travel but also intended to fly within the Earth that could reduce the travel time not longer than 60 min between any two locations on Earth.In a matter of time, humans will be staying in space settlements that will be accessible via space elevators through which friends and families can travel to and fro at a reasonable cost. Maybe someday one might find a neighbour as intelligent as us!

Everything looks fantastic and makes us want to be a part of all these marvels. The pride of writing the creator’s name on the creation is beyond imagination. Nevertheless, this raises many questions in our mind: to make this a reality-what is the path one needs to take? What is one's interest? What should one learn about? Whom should one talk to? When should one start his/her preparation? And the list goes on.

For more such blogs and to learn Space science by me visit https://www.givemefive.ai

Givemefive.ai is an award-winning private live online teacher-led Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Astroscience, Space Science , Universe Science teaching platform for kids and teens (7-18 years) across 15 countries. You can visit Project Page | givemefive to see some of our awesome student projects.

Ashwini B.R Co-Founder Givemefive.ai, MS in Aerospace Engineering, FHWN, Austria

[space-education-for-kids]

The ‘GOLDILOCKS’ Zone

Have you ever wondered where does the term ‘Goldilocks’ comes from? The Goldilocks principle has been derived from the English fairy tale of the 19th century. There is a story named – ‘The Three Bears’, where a young girl called ‘Goldilocks’ tastes three different bowls of porridge and she prefers the porridge that is neither too hot nor too cold but has just the right temperature. This concept of ‘just the right amount’ finds its various applications and one such promising perception is found in ‘Astronomy’.

‘Goldilocks zone’ also known as ‘Habitable zone’ in astronomy defines the area around a star that is neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets. This definition has relied based on finding liquid water, this is because water is very much essential for a life to exist. Million years ago, even on earth, the first creature such as amoeba was found in water. This gives us the importance of life's existence due to water. Hence, the same principle is followed even in exploring life on other planets.

Could we imagine what could happen to all of us if Earth was present in place of Mercury? We all could burn within seconds. This is because the distance between Sun and Mercury is so close that the surface temperature experienced by Mercury during the day is 430 degrees Celsius. On the contrary, what could happen if our Earth was located where Pluto dwells. Just for a second, we think wow! it is so cool. But practically thinking, Pluto is the farthest and coldest celestial body in our solar system. The average temperature during the day on Pluto is minus 223 degrees Celsius. Here, we all would be dead due to freezing within no time. Now let us come back to our Earth which is aptly placed in the Solar System where we don’t feel either like on Mercury or like on Pluto but just at the right condition where we all are happy and comfortable with warm sunny days and cozy cold nights. Let us take a moment to look around us and feel thankful to the Universe for placing us at the right position in a – Habitable zone, where we can live and survive.

Nevertheless, we humans are always curious and want to explore Earth-like planets elsewhere, beyond the Solar system. Therefore, the quest of searching for twin siblings for Earth has begun by our scientists. Scientists have discovered many Earth- like planets which have given us hope. But the challenge is they are billions and millions of kilometer away from us. To reach them, we need to travel at the speed of light! Yes, you heard it right- the speed of 300,000 km/s is how fast the light travels. For example, to reach an Earth-like planet called Kepler -16b it takes us around 245 years if we travel with the speed of light. Unfortunately, we cannot make this with our current engine technologies. Therefore, the young minds have to think out of the box and chase such Earth-like planets which could be done only in our dream today.

For more such blogs and to learn Space science by me visit https://www.givemefive.ai

About Givemefive:

Givemefive.ai is an award-winning private live online teacher-led  Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Astroscience, Space Science , Universe Science  teaching platform for kids and teens (7-18 years) across 15 countries. You can visit Project Page | givemefive to see some of our awesome student projects.

Ashwini B.R Co-Founder Givemefive.ai, MS in Aerospace Engineering, FHWN, Austria, 

[space-education-for-kids]

NEXT STOP IS MOON

The only thing that makes the dark sky look beautiful amidst the countless stars is the Moon! From gazing it through our windows till setting foot on it, we humans have achieved incredibly bigger in making the dreams coming to reality. On 24th July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on Moon. After that, we have never made regular visits to Moon for the past 40 years, except sending spacecraft for observations. Despite such a long gap created for the next human missions on Moon, some upcoming promising missions like Artemis are aiming not only to land on the moon, but also to build colonies and start living there. It is of course challenging to live on Moon but it isn’t impossible. After we found lunar water near the poles, hopes of dwelling on the Moon became stronger, thanks to the Chandrayan1 mission.

However, apart from fantasy, the question of why do we have to go to the Moon is still arising in young minds. In the current scenario, the way we are treating our Earth, it is uncertain to settle the life on Earth for our future generations. Hence it is of course the Next Stop-Moon needed. On one side living on Moon has many advantages over Earth. Yes! The moon has almost 10 times lesser gravity than that on Earth. This means that there could be a possibility of direct satellite launches from Moon to Space without building expensive rockets. Rockets are mainly needed to escape the stronger gravitational pull of Earth. So, we can forget to build rockets if we are planning to launch from Moon. This has made the life of scientists easy. Not just that, the dark craters on the moon are very much beneficial for astronomers to observe the night sky from Moon. The presence of an atmosphere on Earth disturbs the night sky observations for instance: the stars. When we observe the stars, it appears to be twinkling. The reason behind twinkling is as the light from a star hits through our atmosphere, it bounces and knocks through the different layers, bending the light before we see it. The bending of the light changes because of the moving hot and cold layers of air. Since Moon has no atmosphere, this phenomenon of twinkling will not be witnessed and therefore doesn’t misguides the astronomers for their scientific studies. The last question, what do we do for survival? Well, there could be a farm near the poles where we could get access to water. 8 hours of sunlight per day is sufficient for plants to grow. Therefore, problem solved! But, we have to take care of temperature and radiation because we have no atmosphere on Moon to protect from extreme conditions of these. Moreover, we have to even think of insect’s pollination. All these have to be provided artificially.

Thanks to nature and all the creatures we have on Earth that provide us everything for free but sometimes we fail to recognize their importance. So, before we are too late, let us value each and everything we see around us. Because even an insect plays a vital role for our survival on Moon!

For more such blogs and to learn Space science by me visit https://www.givemefive.ai

Givemefive.ai is an award-winning private live online teacher-led Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Astroscience, Space Science , Universe Science  teaching platform for kids and teens (7-18 years) across 15 countries. You can visit Project Page | givemefive to see some of our awesome student projects.

Ashwini B.R

Co-Founder Givemefive.ai, MS in Aerospace Engineering, FHWN, Austria